American Relief Administration

The American Relief Administration (ARA), under the chairmanship of Herbert Hoover, was an unofficial volunteer American charitable organization that conducted relief work in Europe after World War I. It was estimated that more than 90 percent of all foreign relief given to Russia in 1921-1923 during the famine in that country was handled through the ARA. The Mennonite Central Committee was affiliated with the ARA in its Russian relief program and experienced cordial and helpful relations with it during the entire period of ARA relief work in that country.